OLD EOL PROCESSOR FOR NAS / PROXMOS SERVER

[JHA69]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm thinking to build a nas / proxmos serve. Just wanted to if a older or eol xeon / epyc / threadripper is a good option, that way I can get something like a 32/64 core within my budget.

 

.

Shrish

[Needfuldoer]

You'll get a lot of cores, but they won't be particularly fast cores. Older processors are generally more power-hungry, too. Unless you're planning on running a homelab with dozens of virtual machines, you're better off with fewer, but faster, cores.

 

Personally I wouldn't go any older than LGA2011-3 (Haswell/Broadwell Xeon). My home server runs a single 20-core Cascade Lake Xeon 6209u. Before that I ran dual E5-2667 v4s in a PowerEdge R730, and that rig idled at over 200 watts. Older server processors also let you run dirt-cheap registered ECC memory from decommissioned servers.

[Blue4130]

7 minutes ago, JHA69 said:

Hi everyone,

 

I'm thinking to build a nas / proxmos serve. Just wanted to if a older or eol xeon / epyc / threadripper is a good option, that way I can get something like a 32/64 core within my budget.

 

.

Shrish

What do you want the server to do? How much compute do you need?

[manikyath]

unless you have a particular reason for wanting many cores, going with a newer desktop platform is usually a better option.

[Blue4130]

29 minutes ago, manikyath said:

unless you have a particular reason for wanting many cores, going with a newer desktop platform is usually a better option.

Unless you need pcie lanes...

[JHA69]

On 4/28/2025 at 11:26 AM, Blue4130 said:

Unless you need pcie lanes...

 

On 4/28/2025 at 10:56 AM, manikyath said:

unless you have a particular reason for wanting many cores, going with a newer desktop platform is usually a better option.

 

On 4/28/2025 at 7:07 AM, Needfuldoer said:

You'll get a lot of cores, but they won't be particularly fast cores. Older processors are generally more power-hungry, too. Unless you're planning on running a homelab with dozens of virtual machines, you're better off with fewer, but faster, cores.

 

Personally I wouldn't go any older than LGA2011-3 (Haswell/Broadwell Xeon). My home server runs a single 20-core Cascade Lake Xeon 6209u. Before that I ran dual E5-2667 v4s in a PowerEdge R730, and that rig idled at over 200 watts. Older server processors also let you run dirt-cheap registered ECC memory from decommissioned servers.

 

I will be hosting at least 2 Linux VMS, win, TrueNas and if possible, also some remote gaming.

I'm a astronomy student and some of the application i run on a HP SPECTER- i7-1255U usually struggles not to mention RPi also struggles a bit running those linux applications.

 

I'm thinking about Amd epyc 7742 64 core / INTEL XEON E5 2699V4 or Xeon Gold 6338N Processor. These are almost the same price as ultra 9.

[johnt]

I’ve been dabbling in proxmox lately and Ubuntu Server. It’s crazy how much work you can get out of two threads from a modern CPU. I’m running a 12400. 

[LIGISTX]

I went Xeon 2011-3 simply for the PCIe lanes and cheap ECC Ram. 
 

I have a 14 core with 4 cores turned off (hoping this saves a few watts of power and heat) since I just don’t need 28 threads. I run almost a dozen VM’s consisting of multiple Ubuntu server,

home assistant, windows, TrueNAS, and over a dozen docker containers spread across a few of the Ubuntu VM’s. You don’t need many cores to be able to do this, I bet I could get away with 8 threads and have plenty of overhead.